[Honda Nick]

My buddies and I are building a '94 Miata with a J32A2 Honda V6 out of an '03 Acura CL type-s. We are using the Minitec swap kit with an AEM EMS. I've learned a lot doing this swap, but it's almost done. Here's a video of it running with open Y pipe:

I hope to get it to the dyno in the next couple of weeks, and will get it classed for racing with NASA Central at the KS Speedway road race on September 26 & 27.

 

[seanholcombe]

Thanks for sharing. I am preparing to do this swap as well. I've got the engine, but have not purchased the kit from Minitec yet. I'm curious, why did you have an issue with hood clearance? Did you not modify the intake manifold or is there some other reason?

Also, thoughts on the AEM pnp? my engine came with the factory ecu and i'm wondering what path to take there, so anything you can share about your experience tuning the AEM would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Honda Nick]

Sean, our issue with hood clearance was completely self-inflicted. We decided to "reverse" the intake and move the throttle body to the front of the engine via crazy fabrication . If I had to do it again, I would have Minitec modify the intake manifold for side entry. That will save you 40 hours of work.

If you have an ECU from a manual transmission Acura CL, I would use that. Otherwise, AEM is the way to go. We found some discrepancies with the AEM wiring instructions, but we would be happy to share our notes with you. Send me a PM or something. AEM "Plug and Play" is not Plug and Play.

 

[Honda Nick]

We finally got everything running right, here is a video from 9/13.

We will be racing at KS Speedway on Sep 26-27th, should be fun.

 

[oh4one4]

Now you need boost.

 

[MotoCARR]

Nice and quiet lol

 

[Honda Nick]

Got the car running well, dyno results are in! 253 wheel hp and 222 ft-lbs of torque

Lots of fun in this light car

 

[horribleR]

that is hilarious.

 

[Somalia757]

Sounds good anymore updates? I am contemplating this swap as well. Was thinking about the 302 swap but I like Honda engines.

 

[Honda Nick]

Sounds good anymore updates? I am contemplating this swap as well. Was thinking about the 302 swap but I like Honda engines.

Nothing going on with the engine, we are working to make the car as light as possible;

We are removing dash, heater core, blower motor, and A LOT of excess wiring

A set of 3.63 gears will be delivered this week, we will put those in, hoping it will make a serious improvement to the driving experience, will be nice to have a usable second gear.

 

[aidandj]

Insta-torque everywhere.

Got any pictures of the oil pan?

 

[Honda Nick]

Insta-torque everywhere.

Got any pictures of the oil pan?

No specific pics of the oil pan, sorry.

 

[100percentjake]

Oooh, a local! I'm down in Wichita. Wonder if I'll see you around somewhere?

 

[Glocken]

how much weight does this engine add?

 

[Paeday]

couple google searches people doing swaps saying this engine is about 350 pounds. stock na motor is about 230? So about an extra 120 pounds.

 

[Honda Nick]

Oooh, a local! I'm down in Wichita. Wonder if I'll see you around somewhere?

At RPM and Hallett most likely

 

[Honda Nick]

In the spirit of FESTIVUS, I am posting my notes on wiring the AEM EMS on Piata for the J32A2 swap. We used the harness from an Automatic '03 CL. We found a number of discrepancies in the AEM wiring instructions. Hopefully I can save someone frustration if they do a similar setup. We ended up running the engine of AEM cylinders #2,3,4,6,7,8. Of course, we had to change our tune to account for this. We found the "D" connector plug to be the most accurate in terms of AEM instructions. If we had a doubt about something, we would move it to the "D" plug.

 

[pwiebe]

Thanks for posting. How much power do you think you gained via stand-alone versus stock ECU?

 

[pwiebe]

the folks at superfastmiata said they use the stock fuel pump when doing this swap. did you?

 

[Honda Nick]

Thanks for posting. How much power do you think you gained via stand-alone versus stock ECU?

I don't know, but I do know that people have trouble with the stock ecu on this swap; engine won't rev past 5k rpms, won't engage vtec, problems like that.

the folks at superfastmiata said they use the stock fuel pump when doing this swap. did you?

We are using the stock fuel pump