Best and worst day of my project car rebuild happened inside one week

I've been working on a 1995 Miata I picked up for $900 and last week was a total rollercoaster. Tuesday I finally got the engine to crank after fighting with a bad ground for two months. I was so pumped I went to tighten the intake manifold bolts and snapped one clean off in the block. That set me back three days and $40 for a cheap extractor kit from AutoZone. Then Friday a buddy showed me how to use a torch to heat the area and the bolt backed right out like butter. Now I'm back on track but I'm nervous about the timing belt job this weekend because I've heard stories of people messing up the cam alignment. Has anyone else had a project go from a huge win to a total loss in the same week like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_david3d ago

Give the dizzy a little bit of play before you lock down the timing belt. I fought with a 1.6 for three hours because I had the cam gears perfect but the crank was off one tooth. Ended up using a sharpie to mark TDC on the crank pulley and the block before I even touched the belt. Another thing nobody mentions is that you can actually rotate the whole assembly by hand after you tension the belt and before you start the engine. Just spin it a few times by the crank bolt and check if the marks still line up. Saves a ton of headache.

the_dylan3d ago

Wait did you actually use a cheap extractor kit from AutoZone or did the torch trick save you from having to drill it out? I had a similar thing happen on my old Civic and the extractor snapped off inside the bolt and made everything ten times worse. That sounds like you got lucky with the heat method. My main question is about that timing belt though. Did you end up using the sharpie trick your buddy mentioned or did you just wing it with the factory marks? I did a timing belt on a 1.8 once and the marks were off by a hair from the factory so I ended up having to redo the whole thing.