build diary

June 2, 2004: Much excitement!
The engine is in! Brian, the new tech at Flyin' Miata, came around to my place after work and we dropped the engine in place. It went in fairly easily but was a tighter fit than I'd expected. Once the front pulley slipped in behind the top of the frame it all went easily. Brian's done a fair bit of fabricating and the motor mounts gave him a bit of a laugh - they're hugely overbuilt. Beats the alternative...

So there we were, standing in the garage. We had a car up on sawhorses and an engine hoist. Time to put the car on the ground! We bolted on some wheels, tossed the seats in and carefully lowered the car to the ground. I got all excited when the front touched down and the suspension compressed - it's like the car came alive! The suspension was set at the lowest point because it made it easier for me to play with it, and this put the car pretty much right into the dirt. We measured about 1.75" between the oil pan and the garage floor. Hmm, maybe I should raise this up a little. Playing with the steering revealed that one of the joints in the column was slipping a little but that was fixed with a bit of welding. The car looks even smaller on the ground. After a bit of fooling around, we lifted it back into the air to make it easier to work on.

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