Upgrades to Mazda Miata?

May 2021 3 44 Report

Upgrades to Mazda Miata?

I'm planning on getting a 1995-99 Mazda Miata. I am gonna use it as a track car. I have done some research, and have decided that i want to drop in a 5 liter '93 mustang engine, and get a supercharger for it. I don't know too much about cars, but i know this is a pretty common swap. Now, i have looked a lot into mustang engines(I'm planning on buying a 67 fastback as a daily driver) and i know that a lot of people put 302 Cleveland heads on a 302 Windsor, do to the size of the Cleveland heads. Is it possible to put Cleveland style heads on a 93 engine? if so, would it be worth the work, and how much work will it take? If i did the engine swap would you recommend replacing the suspension in the front? If you have any other ideas for upgrades, just throw them out there

Thanks,

-Patrick

Update:

...Or some ford explorer heads

Cars & Transportation / Car Makes / Mazda

Naughtums

Verified answer

Monster Miata do the conversion up properly for about $10,000. You won't do as well on your own.

My suggestion rather than doing a V8 abomination,... I mean conversion is that if you must have a light 2-seat V8 roadster you build a Factory Five Cobra replica instead. It will just be better and they make a class-legal racer version right from the factory.

Old Man Dirt

If it is a 302 block- the Cleveland heads will work, there are articles on the internet for how it is done.

It will take some work to make the suspension and its mounting points secure enough to take the extra weight and power!

Before you go too crazy down the V8 route- check out what BEGi has to offer that works with the existing engine!

Owning a Miata's and having pushed one to 200+ horses and deciding to tone it down a little- I would suggest that 250 hp. (that is about 10lbs./horse) is wild enough. I tuned it back to 180 hp.

Having run with the Miata crowd for a few years now- I have known of several owners that traded off a V8 powered Miata so they could start over and be more sane about it.

I use a turbo on "Hot Saki", for continuous power a super charger would be better. But those are becoming difficult to find. My usual sources don't list one any more.