Miata project

[lechnoid]

Ok, I've decided that I'm going to keep all my project ideas in this thread so as to keep things separated and in the appropriate forum. I'm not sure if this should go in technical or modifications, but plenty discussed here will apply to both.

So since getting a hold of this engine and tearing down the "fluff" on it, I've had a few questions raised and hoping you guys can help me answer them.

Intake. I'll likely be fabricating an intake for this. From what I've worked up in my head so far, I'll be doing minor modifications to the lower manifolds, but will have a new upper made from scratch. This poses the question of what will need to be carried over from factory to custom. On the factory setup, from the underside of the upper intake, there's a vacuum operated...well, round thingy, the induction control vavle assembly. I haven't taken it apart, but I can only guess that under certain conditions, it opens or closes between the two halves of the manifold. Precisely to what purpose was this put on the engine to begin with? Will I need something similar on the fabricated intake?

Moving on from that, there are a number of vacuum solenoids (3 or 4 if I recall) under the intake. When I got the engine, not all the lines where intact, so I wasn't able to figure out where all of these are supposed to go. AllData is turning up a blank for me on this one, so I figured I'd ask you guys.

Since we're here, what vacuum lines and parts can be eliminated and still have the engine run without issue? I'm not worried about passing emissions, as Minnesota has no emissions testing. Aside from vacuum, is there any other fat I can trim? I'm looking for the very most simple setup I can manage. After owning an '86, '88, and '93 RX-7, I've learned to appreciate the simplicity of a modified vacuum system. I would like to avoid wrestling with anything the ECU needs to see signals from but am not totally opposed to it either. I'll just sucker the good ECU guys into lending a hand

Onto the throttle body...It would be simple to use the factory one, but are there other options out there if this one becomes a pain my rear for some reason? I am planning on putting more power to the engine once I figure out exactly how to fit it into the engine bay. Which brings us to....

Exhaust manifolds. I've come across a couple things saying the factory manifolds flow pretty well already. The factory ones simply won't fit the way they should for me, so you guessed it, I'll be having custom ones made. Any suggestions on improvements from the factory design?

Here's a doozy of an issue for me...the transmission. There is no feasible way for me to make the miata AWD. This leaves me with figuring out a RWD tranny option. I have yet to get in touch with Small Car, but after looking through their site, I doubt they'll have a solution for me. I can find a Subaru transmission that will work to modify it to RWD only. I don't see this as a very viable option due to the space that a normal AWD tranny will take up. I could find a RWD transmission and modify it to fit the Subaru engine. I remember having a transmission (I think a Borg-Warner T-5 or T-10) that was a durable, yet slim and compact transmission with a removeable bell housing. I'm thinking this might be the best option for me so that I can simply have a bell housing made that will fit both the engine and transmission the way it should.

Ok, I know there's a lot more to this that I could go on about, but this is quite a bit for now. Once I get some pictures of what I have to work with I'll get them up here. You guys seem to work really well with them That and I've been at work for an hour and have only written this post in that time. Good thing Saturdays are slow at a shop.