At 200,000 miles the engine was replaced with a crate engine from Flyin' Miata. The engine is one of the "intermediate crank" engines that Mazda developed between the 1991 and 1992 models. The intermediate crank solves the famous "short crank" problem of early 1991 engines but isn't exactly the "long crank" that the 1992 had. The head has been reworked. Port, polished, 3 angle valve job with 9:1 low compression pistons from an automatic. The 9:1 pistons allow me to run higher boost on the turbo (without knock/ping) than I could on the normal 9.8:1 pistons.


This is the engine as it stood when it was ready to go into the car. A lot of work went into getting it to this point.


This is the reason for the new engine. Remember to take fuel/timing very seriously when you are running a boosted engine or this could be you.