Jump to content

Duratec Swap

  • entries
    5
  • comments
    31
  • views
    5,066

About this blog

So last week I was driving my daily driver '69 home from work and noticed that the oil pressure was not its usual happy 60 psi.  It was 45 and slowly dropping.  By the time I got home it was 20 psi at speed and 0 at idle.  Bummer.  So after the usual checks to see what caused it, including a new oil pressure sending unit and dropping the pan to replace the oil pump with a known good one, with no result  it was time to pull the engine.

 

Keep in mind this is a salvage title car that I pulled off a truck that was headed to the car crusher the next day.  Lots of work later and it was a fine daily driver and has been my primary transport for about 7 years.

 

So I have this 2.3 Duratec sitting in my garage that I got for an MGB swap that never happened so I think it's time to use it.  It's an all aluminum dual overhead cam motor that is quite compact.  It measures about 2 inches shorter front to back and about 1 inch taller than the M10.  It also about 40 lbs lighter, yes I weighed them.

 

The plan is a Miata 5 speed transmission, 318i hydraulic engine mounts, custom radiator (meaning I will weld one up), and a custom intake.  I'll probably switch to VDO gauges as well since there won't be a speedometer cable.

 

 

SDC10438.JPG

Entries in this blog

Oil Pan

Ugh!  The dreaded oil pan.  Dammit Jim, I'm an engineer not a fabricator!   I used to be a pretty decent welder, but it's been many years!  I may remake this in aluminum at some point.   It should hold 4 quarts in the pan and 1 in the oil filter.

TKMad

TKMad

She drives!

Got her on the road today, well running around my neighborhood at least.  I need to do some tuning of the Megasquirt but even with my old tune it runs pretty well.   I haven't gotten on the throttle too much but it has significantly more power than the old M10.  It also idles super smooth!   I still need to finish the exhaust and plumb the air cleaner somehow.  I have one stuck on for driving around but it's just temporary.   The radiator is a kit from Northern Radi

TKMad

TKMad

Transmission

Pics of the 5 speed transmission and driveshaft.   The transmission is about 11" longer to the driveshaft flange so the driveshaft will have to be shortened.  It looks like I can use the front of the Miata shaft and about the last 5" of the BMW shaft.  No more center bearing, yay!    

TKMad

TKMad

Fitting

Going to have to do a wee bit of cutting.  The shift tower needs to protrude up through the tunnel about an inch and the shift location is about 1.5" further aft than the BMW one.  I actually kind of like that since I've always thought the original location was a little too far forward.  Other than that the transmission seems to fit the tunnel rather easily.   I'll remove the cool ring that the shift boot attaches to so hopefully I can reuse it.    

TKMad

TKMad

Parts

Got an aluminum flywheel.  Had one on the M10 and loved it.  I never had any rattling or stalling or vibrations of any kind.   Looks like the mounts will fit nicely in the gusset on the front subframe.    

TKMad

TKMad

  • Blog Statistics

    • Total Blogs
      448
    • Total Entries
      2,347
×
×
  • Create New...