The engine arrived from Marshalls on Friday December 4, 1998. It was set in a tire and positioned on a flat pallate, then wrapped tightly in plastic. The engine came with intake plenum, throttle body, fuel rail, exhaust manifold, ignition coils, and water pump attached. Erik threw in a 1.8 alternator in with the $700 asking price. Missing was the flywheel, one motor mount, an alternator bracket, and an A/C bracket (these items should be arriving soon). The engine was from a 1995 Miata with 33K miles on the clock. Here is what I have done so far:

• SATURDAY DEC 12(2 hrs): Intake plenum, ignition coils, exhaust manifold, fuel rail, and injectors removed.
• SATURDAY DEC 19(.5 hr): Water pump and bracket removed.
• TUESDAY DEC 22(1 hr): Thermostat housing, timing belt, crank angle sensor, cam sprockets, and cams removed.
• SATURDAY DEC 26(1.5 hrs): Removed HLAs, removed head.
• MONDAY DEC 28(2 hrs): Water pump, crank nose bolt, and timing pulley removed. Crank nose bolt was a B-I-T-C-H to remove (thus the 2 total hours of labor), especially without a flywheel to lock. Don't ask how I did it...
• WEDNESDAY DEC 30(2.5 hrs): Pulled timing pulley, oil pump, oil pan, crank, pistons, and rods. Disassembly is complete!
• FRIDAY JANUARY 22: Purchased used 1.8L Jackson Racing header from a buddy in Austin.
• JANUARY 28: Purchased custom 10.5:1 pistons and Total Seal rings from JE.
• THURSDAY MARCH 4: Purchased set of dual valve springs from PAECO and a set of Carrillos rods from the Dealer Alternative. (--my wallet is not happy today--)
• WEDNESDAY APRIL 14: Returned the PAECO valve springs because they require extra machine work to the head for a proper fit. Pistons, rings, and Crane valve springs arrived.
• THURSDAY APRIL 15: Pistons, rods, block, head and crank taken to Atwell Engines for the full treatment. They quoted me a starting time of about a week from today.
• MONDAY MAY 17: Ordered a spare 1.6L throttle body so that it can be machined to fit the 1.8L intake plenum with no down time.
• WEDNESDAY MAY 26: Ordered Mazdaspeed cams and AEM blue anodized cam sprockets from The M Road. If Dan doesn't carry a popular item, by all means give him a call; he can become a dealer for just about anything in a snap.
• TUESDAY JUNE 8: Ordered a lightweight flywheel from the Dealer Alternative and an ACT organic clutch disk/high clamping force pressure plate combo from Mazda Competition.
• THURSDAY JUNE 17: Ordered a gasket kit from Roebuck Mazda.

Click HERE to link to the page that covers the build!

Disassembling an engine is really not as difficult as it may seem. The hardest part is categorizing the hundreds of parts that you remove. (All the bolts start looking the same after a while.) Some say a video camera is useful, I suggest lots of sandwich baggies and masking tape for making labels. One of the above pictures is a parts table in my bedroom. It helps to have it all laid out where you can find things when you need them.