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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.