Art

Engine Knock, Houston, Engine Swap, KCDrift (Post- Quarantine 2020)

The week before the first KCdrift event of the year was pretty hectic. After finishing the battery mount I started the miata and heard some HLA ticking that eventually went away; nothing out of the normal for a an earlier year miata engine, so I didn't think anything of it. I drove the miata to the parts store down the road for some Rain-X because I deleted my wipers and wiper motor and planned on having my buddy align it the next day, which called for rain. On the way back home I noticed the clusters oil pressure gauge read zero at the stop light, but went back up to "normal" when I drove off. I assumed it was my gauge sensor or the wire leading to it; in the process of gutting the car I wasn't exactly gentle with the harness or cluster. Got the miata back in the garage and the gauge read "normal" so no harm, no foul, right? 

The next day, 5/20/2020, I went to pick the miata up during lunch for the alignment and upon starting I heard the normal HLA ticks and an additional knocking noise. Looked at the clusters oil pressure gauge and it read zero. Rev'd a few times with no change in the dial (essentially an idiot light) and turned the car off. After yelling "FUCK" a couple of times, probably loud enough for my deaf neighbor to hear, I hopped back in my truck and drove back to work irritated and trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do.

A quick search in the general area proved worthless. Tons of 1.6L's, and newer 1.8L's, but nothing 94-95. I didn't want to upgrade to either of the newer 1.8 L engines because 1) they're more expensive and 2) I didn't want to fuck with the hassle of getting it to work on my OBD1 car. I then started looking at auto auctions and ads for full parts cars, again, no luck unless I wanted to drop over $2K or fly out to California, rent U-haul and drive back. That seemed like too high of a risk so I decided to rebuild my HLA's and hope that somehow I misheard the "knock".

After work on 5/21/2020 I rebuilt the HLA's. Rebuilding the HLA's isn't hard. Just tedious due to all the small parts. Took a couple hours, but I wan't really in a rush. The next day, 5/22/2020 I Re-installed my cams, timed the car, and picked up a cheap mechanical oil pressure gauge. After making sure everything was back together I started the car and heard the same HLA tick and a distinct "knock" from the bottom end. The mechanical oil pressure gauge was bone dry also. Defeated, I turned the car off and finished my pizza.

Tried a CL search again in the surrounding KS/MO/OK area and of course no luck. Randomly decided to look in TX and found an engine and trans located in Houston, TX for a price I couldn't resists. E-mailed the guy expecting the typical "please wire payment to my brother in Nigeria via western union" scam, but surprisingly got a text the next morning saying it was available. The seller told me the engine came from his friends car which was totaled. Sadly the guy passed away in the wreck. After a few phone calls, a ton of photos, and a promise that he wouldn't sell it before I got there, I decided to head out the next morning (5/24/2020) to pick it up. 

Woke up around 3:00 am to pick up my Dad and his small utility trailer and we hit the road. The drive is nothing to write home about. Pretty boring. Minimal stops, excess speeds, and a few driving shift changes. Called the seller when we were about 30 minutes out and met him at his house. Thankfully the engine and trans matched what I saw in the photos. The seller had an electric hoist which made loading extremely quick. We arrived and left within 20 minutes. Booked it home and pulled into my driveway by 10:00pm. Called my friend Dale and asked if I could use his lift and got the green light. 

On memorial day, 5/25/2020, I woke up around 8:30am, hooked the utility trailer up to my truck, drank some coffee, and waiting for Dale to arrive with his car trailer to take the miata to his shop. We got to the shop around 10:30am and got to work. My friend Alec showed up right as we finished checking the spare engines compression, making EGR delete plates, and were putting the miata on the lift. Engine swap details aren't that interesting, but we pulled my original engine and trans, split the trans from the original engine, split the spare engine and its trans, put my clutch on the spare engines flywheel, mated my trans to the spare engine, and re-installed. Refilled the fluids, got the miata off the lift (it's a hassle) and crossed my fingers that it ran well. Started the miata and everything checked out; good oil pressure, no knocks, HLA tick went away shortly after starting. We left the shop around 8:00pm with the miata on the trailer to put my MAF on (the one that came with the spare engine was bad) and set the timing in my garage. Got it running well, gave everyone high fives, then went to bed to try and catch up on some sleep before work the following days. 

The week was pretty relaxed. got the miata aligned, checked off a few small things such as attaching the cluster hood, filling the shifter turret, etc... That friday I bought a car trailer. Loaded the miata on it that night and went the the first KCdrift event of the year the following morning. 

Not going to talk much about the event other than it was hot. The miata did great, driving was fun, no one had any major issues, and even got some coverage from Alecs friend, Conor Seybert. Some of his photos from the event are below. He's working on a short film of the event which I'll probably link when it's complete. 

Drifting is tight. My friends and family are rad.