I had that 2.5 in an Escape. It wasn’t great on MPG but I imagine it would be plenty fun in something light like the Miata and it was a very reliable engine. Never had any issues except a leaking valve cover gasket at like 130k miles lol.
Miata Meets Uncle Rodney - A 2.5L Swap Story
- Thread starter Runalot
- Start date
Think some folks are missing the point a little bit. The 2.0l > 2.5l swap requires very little custom work or parts, it's largely just mixing and matching OEM parts to fit the 2.5l variant of the same fundamental engine architecture. Not exactly drop-in, but not too far from it. Cost runs from $1k - $5k all in depending on if you're doing the labor yourself and how many performance parts you're doing at the same time.
KA24, 5.0l Ford, LSx, etc. are all much more complex, involve way more custom aftermarket parts, typically require also swapping the transmission, clutch, rear end, etc. Figure you are going to start around $10k as a baseline if you do all the work yourself and get lucky on some parts prices, realistically more like $15k - 25k for most projects.
KA24, 5.0l Ford, LSx, etc. are all much more complex, involve way more custom aftermarket parts, typically require also swapping the transmission, clutch, rear end, etc. Figure you are going to start around $10k as a baseline if you do all the work yourself and get lucky on some parts prices, realistically more like $15k - 25k for most projects.
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Top Tip! Thoroughly clean your $320 junkyard motor before digging in!
I mentioned "surprises" in my initial post and here we are....
Pulled the oil filter housing off today—smooth move, right? Well, not exactly. Turns out there was a nice little ridge of dirt, sand, dust, debris, etc.. where the housing met the block (redline in the pic), just waiting to ruin my day. The moment I removed it, a bit of the dirt, sand, dust, debris, etc... took a swan-dived straight into engine block oil inlet/outlet like it had been training for the Olympics.
Cue panic mode (and BITOG OCD). I wiped everything out as best as I could, then had a brilliant idea: roll the engine onto its side and blast the holes with fogging oil like I was pressure-washing a crime scene. It probably helped, but in the process, I also managed to coat the entire garage floor in oil, coolant, and regret. So now, not only am I hoping I got all the sand out of the engine (quite sure I did but the OCD can be STRONG), but I’m also trying not to break my neck slipping on my own mess.
Hahahahah. Why am I doing this?
I mentioned "surprises" in my initial post and here we are....
Pulled the oil filter housing off today—smooth move, right? Well, not exactly. Turns out there was a nice little ridge of dirt, sand, dust, debris, etc.. where the housing met the block (redline in the pic), just waiting to ruin my day. The moment I removed it, a bit of the dirt, sand, dust, debris, etc... took a swan-dived straight into engine block oil inlet/outlet like it had been training for the Olympics.
Cue panic mode (and BITOG OCD). I wiped everything out as best as I could, then had a brilliant idea: roll the engine onto its side and blast the holes with fogging oil like I was pressure-washing a crime scene. It probably helped, but in the process, I also managed to coat the entire garage floor in oil, coolant, and regret. So now, not only am I hoping I got all the sand out of the engine (quite sure I did but the OCD can be STRONG), but I’m also trying not to break my neck slipping on my own mess.
Hahahahah. Why am I doing this?
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Exactly! I'll be in about $3 to $4K with this swap. I'll post some of the fun bits I pickup on the way. And for the record, I deleted the expense column from my spreadsheet as sometimes it's better not to keep track of these things. LOL
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Nope. Rigging up an ECU, fueling, etc... would be neat, but I don't have infrastructure outside the car to make that happen. Going to install the 2.5, pray, and turn the key.
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Shhhhhhh! Don't tell my wife...already in my long-term plans.....
looks like the weight adds a massive amount of negative camber. Or maybe you need that to actually turn it with all that weight.Coffin on wheels!Yeah, I'd love to test drive a Miata with a V8.
You might be surprised. Flyin' Miata states that the typical LSx swap adds about 180 lbs, with 120 lbs over the front wheels and 60 lbs over the back. F/R balance is changed by only a few percentage points.
Drift car. That's Taylor Ray, big drift guy.
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New harmonic balancer/pulley arrived today. Snagged this as dropping the 2.5L into the Miata requires deleting the balance shafts to use the 2.0 oil pan which is needed to clear the cross member. A fancy balancer seemed like a good idea as I'm planning to run a lighter weight flywheel and I'd prefer to this motor not vibrate itself to death (at least this year).
Notice, no keyway. Would have it been that difficult to key the crank?
Notice, no keyway. Would have it been that difficult to key the crank?
And @tcp71
At least the gen 1 and gen 2 motors were ford iron blocks - right out of the ranger - one reason why you could romp on them daily in a Miata and they’d still be tight at 200k. That block is not light - an Al V8 drops in there without much of a penalty.
Losing the balance cartridge is a bummer. Large 4 bangers shake a fair bit. Oh well. Keep going...
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Indeed. For the swap, I need to use the oil pan from the 2.0 to clear the cross member. With the 2.0 oil pan, the balance shaft assembly simply won't fit. I'll be using a Fluidampr harmonic balancer to help mitigate vibration.
That engine looks stout. Love the ganged main bearing caps. And bucket valve actuation is very stable; no side loads applied to the valve stems. NICE!
I think you'll find its a nice pulling 3k-6k rpm engine and revving it up to where the balance shafts really help, isn't going to be needed, as these don't have VVT? My 2.0 in the Focus has no VVT either, and in brisk driving, shifting at 6k or a bit after is fine.
This is the one miata swap/upgrade I've never seen run or been in, but I think its probably the best choice for a little more grunt while keeping it still like a regular miata. I've seen a FC RX-7 transformed into a really fun autocross car when he swapped the rotary for a 2.4 ecotec, and gave it enough torque to make the car steerable with power, but not hard to drive.
The LS swap needs a ton of work to the rest of the car, and is tricky to sort it all out, to get it back to handling as good as it was, and is a handful to drive quickly, and always looking to send you into the ditch. But if you want a reliable 300+hp car, its probably the best option, if you have the time and money to get it working right.
The supercharger car didn't seem to actually add that much more performance and added some significant weight on the front, while making it tricky to keep running well, sounded cool though!
The most impressive was a 1990 with a good size turbo, running an anti-lag system! Bangs and pops and fire shooting out of it, and on some super sticky tires with a well sorted suspension and a good aggressive driver, a very angry little yellow bar of soap!
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The MZR 2.0 and 2.5 have variable valve timing on the intake side. Attached are some pics.
Given this is my first engine swap, I'd be out of my depth swapping in a V8. That said, I'm open to forced induction in the future. We'll see....
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Yup! I picked up timing tools from Amazon. This is my first time timing and engine and I can't say I'm thrilled about the process of timing an MZR. To your point, having the engine on the stand should make it "easier".