I read in the FAq a while back that cams from a 1.8l Miata of certain years will fit on a 1.8l Protege. My brother's 90 Miata has a 1.6l and I'm pretty sure that it has DIS. I can only assume having never seen under the hood of a 1.8l Miata that it would also be DIS. My car, however has a distributor. How would I driv my distributor off these cams?? Do they still have the holes/depressions/whatever to allow the dist. to run off the cam??

 

The 99 miata cams are the ones that give the 1.8L BP motor some extra power. You will want to look into swapping the whole head with the solid lifters. Those cams are said to be 'solid lifter' cams. I donno the difference between a solid lifter cam and a hydraulic lifter cam though.

The 99 miata head has better port design and stuff.... that's where all the power is.

 

My engine also has solid lifters
Problem with the 99 head is that because the ports are redesigned and ****, my intake manifold won't bolt up I don't think.Even if I could swap the head it wouldn't solve my distributor drive problem.

 

midnite,
Talk to Beast on the TPC board. He works with my buddy at MAzda and has a blueprinted 1.8...or call malcolm at Dubois MAzda in Woodstock at 519 537 5536

 

Sorry Dawg, I can't do anything yet till i finish school and find a job. I was just wondering for future reference, thanks.
Is it from a protege or Miata??

 

1.8 BP Pro

 

the miata cams WON'T work... I know you're trying to learn stuff and trying to find something that will work on your car... but I hate to break this news to you... there's no other engines that have interchangable parts with your engine! In the future PLEASE keep in mind that if the engine code or series is WAY different that you don't even have to bother thinking about getting stuff meant for whatever other engine

 

Edwin,
The cams DO fit as do the pistons. Like I said, my buddy, who aside from being a Mazda enthusist is also a Mazda mechanic, has both in his blue-printed 97 1.8. Trust me because mines getting done too next month...

 

midnightblue has a 1.5 from what I understand (he has a 97 lx).... so no... those parts won't fit... yes it will fit the 1.8 though

 

I've been known to just skim through things that I'm reading and miss important details, but I have a 1.8l, Ive read things in there enough times to have noticed that they wouldn't fit if I had a 1.5l.
To put it short, I'm not that dumb.

 

Funny, you didn't tell me to do a search or call me a fucktard. Were you in a good mood yesterday??
Oh yeah, this isn't directed at you specifically, but to whoever may have the experiencewith these came,s what did you do about distributor drive??

 

I thought the miata cams DOES have the disty drive

 

Ok. THANK YOU.
I guess they probably used the same shaft and just ground the lobes different then. Thats good news for me.
Now I just have to finish school, get a job and search some Miata forums to see if any are for sale locally.

One last question.
I know that there's a rule of some sort about not using an old cam with old (different) lifters, ie. the mx5 cams and the old lifters from my car for example. but I seem to remember that you can use an old cam, with new lifters or new cam with old lifters would I be wise to just buy NEW lifters regardless, or just get the old lifters from the mx5 cams and use them, assuming I was able to keep them in the right order.
My car, according to my haynes manual does NOT have HLA, but rather solid lifters.

 

For what its worth, I don't know what you think of Haynes manuals, for the work that I've had to do thus far, I feel that mine was a worthy investment. I don't have it right in front of me, but it did state that the 1.8l equipped Protege's from the 1997 model year, and the 1.5l
Protege's from a certain year which I forget offhand, did have solid lifters.

 

solid lifters on BPs did not come until 99

the haynes manual is just expensive toliet paper... one that hurts my ***!