It's Arrived!

[azgtx]

I would for sure get the head surfaced and checked for true, looks like that head has been off before. Sometimes the head gaskets get put on backwards blocking off the water jackets causing overheating. It likely overheated anyway warping the head thus the blown gasket. Don't do all that work and have to do it again...unless you are just going to swap regardless. Yes..12 or 13mm 12point gets those head bolts out.
Clay

[Mazda_Powered]

head won't pull off?? weird...intake manifold have a support bracket maybe???

I'd imagine you have the timing belt and other junk off lol

[DuRWooD]

Everything appears to be off. I didn't spend too long, as it's in my driveway, I just got home from a 12.5 hour shift, and mosquitoes were eating me alive. I'm sure I'll have it off tonight after work.

[shorestiva]

Theres a intake mani support bracket make shure thats off.

[FE3-323]

triple check & make sure everything is removed & ALL of the head stud nuts are loose.

[DuRWooD]

Theres a intake mani support bracket make shure thats off.

Well, that was it. 2 bolts behind the manifold. Don't know how I missed that. Oh well.

Anyway, the head may be toast. Taking it to a machine shop tomorrow. The head gasket was completely missing between cylinders 1 & 2 as I had suspected. Where is was missing though, the head is damaged, I think beyond a simple plane. Maybe some metal can be welded in, I don't know. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Edit: bottom end looks good at least.

[noshatch]

Are you sure that it is just the head?? With a compression of 0 you might have some bad ring lands. It looks like there's some oil in cylinders 1 and 2

[DuRWooD]

I think that's fuel. Bores look spotless.

[noshatch]

oh ok

[DuRWooD]

So, I've decided to use the head off of my GTX. The machine shop said my repair would be at least $600.

Decided to use the GTX turbo as well. Took the GT's turbo off to fund a VJ11/14 hybrid with fin damage and more than a mm of shaft play in and out.

[Mazda_Powered]

hey at least you figured the issue out. Definitely swap heads if you're able to do it quicker/cheaper than the $600 repair bill...

[J.P.]

I have a good spare Miata head if you need it. You would need to swap your cams over, but otherwise it should be good to go. The engine was running fine, I only needed the block and crankshaft from it. LMK if you are interested.

[DuRWooD]

Well, I might be interested in the head, as I'd like to build another spare engine for the GT. What would you want for the head?

I finished up the car this morning. Car is running great. Boost builds so much faster than before, idles great. Much more fun to drive, even at 7 PSI. Got my new wheels mounted, although my 205/55/15 tires rub in the back quite a bit.

[J.P.]

I think 195-50-15 or max 205-50-15 without rolling the fenders if the offset is perfect is what I remember. I ran 195-50-15 with no issues (on Hyundai Tiburon rims).

For the head - does $100 sound reasonable?

[DuRWooD]

Yeah, I'm looking for 195/50's. No one stocks them, so I put these on. $100 for the head sounds good. PM me your number, I'll text you next time I'm planning a Kingston trip.