The Short Version: Putting a Honda K24 engine into pretty much anything with wheels is very popular, and the folks from Speed Academy found what might be the easiest way to do that with an NC-generation Mazda Miata.
Of all the great bench racing topics that car enthusiasts love to bicker about, none is more popular than the engine swap. The idea of taking a car with a great chassis but a less-than-stellar engine and giving it a more potent powerplant has huge appeal. It’s also usually a huge pain and, depending on the swap, can involve crazy amounts of fabrication and wiring to end up with something that’s only kind of functional. That’s not the case with this NC Mazda Miata Honda K24 swap though.
Once again the intrepid Canucks from Speed Academy are living our dream and with K Power Industries have created what may be the Goldilocks of Miatas. The whole adventure began with finding a crashed NC-generation Miata and having the folks from Geaux Moto pick it up, fix the damage, paint it Ford Dark Horse Mustang blue, and remove the convertible top in favor of an aftermarket hardtop. Then it was shipped up to Ontario and the real work began.
The goal with this K Power Industries swap kit is to make putting a Honda K24 into a Miata as easy as is humanly possible. This means that in addition to things like a new custom subframe and engine mounts, it also comes with a full mil-spec engine wiring loom and a Haltech Elite 1500 ECU with a base map already set up. All you need to supply is the car, the engine, the time, and the tools. Oh, and $10,000 for the kit itself. This swap is also unique in that it keeps the Mazda’s air conditioning, making it an even more usable car.
Other really rad things about this swap include the fact that the Haltech ECU is capable of running the NC Miata’s CANBUS system, so it totally replaces the stock ECU and maintains the functionality of all the car’s factory functionality. It also adds features like shift-without-lift and auto-blip rev-matching for downshifts.
The goal of the Speed Academy video is to show that in a reasonably well-equipped shop with an above-average set of skills, this swap can be completed by a couple of people in a weekend, leaving you with a running and driving car. That’s wild, especially when you consider some people’s engine swaps can take months or even years.
This video is only part one of the series and the next part will deal with the chassis modifications to help the smiley little roadster handle even better than it already does. I assume there will be plans to change the look of the car, and I’m crossing fingers that Dave and Pete go the Mazda Super20 route, because that thing is awesome.
In the meantime, if you need me, I’ll be aimlessly scrolling through Marketplace looking for cheap NC Miatas.
